Discusses the development of a foreign language (Spanish) test battery that was designed for two purposes: to place students in study-abroad programs appropriate to their language ability and to provide information on designing useful instruction for prospective study-abroad students. Results are presented into task and rater variability in the…

Derivations of the term "gerund" are examined as they pertain to native English speakers learning French, Italian, and/or Spanish. The form's etymology is chronicled from Latin, and its current usage in student textbooks in the three languages is examined. A solution to the terminological confusion surrounding the term is proposed. (41…

Analyzes the effectiveness of e-mail as a tool to promote foreign language learning. Identifies the following features of the foreign language generated through the electronic medium: greater amount of language; more variety of topics and language functions; higher level of language accuracy; more similarity with oral language; more…

Observed effects of dialogue journaling through electronic mail on the language produced by learners of Spanish as a second language, compared with the paper-and-pencil version. The electronic version was found to have a positive effect on the amount of language generated and on students' attitudes towards learning the target language but did not…

The present study on second language (L2) reading and individual difference variables (IDVs) examines learners' self-assessed ability level and enjoyment and the effects of these factors on two different measures of comprehension. The investigation controls for topic familiarity differences by gender and the study utilizes the authentic short…

This study examines the effectiveness of teachers' incidental focus on form on vocabulary learning. Seventeen 45-minute audio-recorded teacher-led conversation, 204 learners' diaries (17 sessions x 12 learners) reporting what the participants had learned after each conversational class, 204 post-test translations, and 204 delayed post-test…

"Dimension" is the annual volume containing the selected, refereed, edited Proceedings of each year's conference. "From Practice to Profession" was the announced theme of the annual conference of the Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT), held March 1-3, 2007, at the Atlanta (GA) Renaissance Hotel, in partnership…

This research is based on the assumption that a Spanish/English bilingual is aware of the phonological and semantic relatedness of the many hundreds of pairs of transparently cognate items in the two languages. This awareness is linguistically significant in that it is reflected in the internalized grammar of the bilingual. The bilingual speaker…

Spanish American plural formation is discussed in relation to attempts that have been made to write a set of phonological rules that would correctly predict the Spanish plural using a combination of phonological rules and word structure constraints. A brief synopsis is resented of why previous attempts to predict the plural are in error.…

This book begins with a consideration of the relation between language as representation and the reality that is represented. The object of this study is the semantic function of syntactical relations in French and Spanish, but other languages are also used for purposes of comparison. Three principal diatheses are revealed: objective, subjective,…

This paper presents a morphophonemic analysis of the characteristics that distinguish verb structure in New Mexican Spanish from that of Standard Spanish. Verb structure and classification are discussed, and verbs are analyzed as being composed of four components: stem, thematic vowel, tense-aspect, and person-number. Verbs are classified as…

Throughout the centuries in Spain, the Castilians and Catalans have shared cultural, social, political, generational, and human experiences. This exchange was bound to have a linguistic influence of the Castilian on the Catalan language. (In Catalonia bilingualism is prevalent, and in Castile it is not.) While there have been lexical changes, the…

This publication presents four suggested language arts curriculum units designed to be used with high school students in first- or second-year Spanish classes who are native speakers of the language. The first unit, which deals with the Spanish alphabet, is meant to be used as an introduction to the Spanish language. The second and third units,…

This issue deals with verb-object complementation, a complex and controversial but important topic, in particular in connection with the teaching and learning of a second language. The articles are a response to a long debate about the harmonization of grammatical terminology used in schools and the simplification of grammar for students. The…

Discusses a longitudinal experimental study concerned with the second-language acquisition of argument structure and its relationship with case theory. French and English intermediate learners of Spanish as a second language were tested three times over a period of eight months on their knowledge of dative experiencers. Results indicate that the…